Isis Set to Debut in October

Mobile payments platform Isis will make it's long-awaited launch on Oct. 22, according to published reports.

Formed by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, the mobile wallet venture will use near-field communication (NFC) technology to allow customers to make point-of-sale purchases by waving their smartphones over scanners. The service is scheduled to launch later on a limited basis in two test markets: Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas.

Isis previously announced the selection of digital security firm Gemalto (Amsterdam) to secure its mobile commerce platform as it gears up for its rollout.

[See Also: After Much Fanfare, Isis Launches with Pragmatic Expectations]

Much heralded upon its announcement in 2010, Isis was initially set to launch during the first part of 2012, and later its debut was pushed back to late summer. With a firm date in place, Isis now attempts to regain its momentum as it takes on existing wallet solutions, such as Google Wallet.

An Isis spokesman previously told Bank Systems & Technology that the number of merchants that would be able to accept Isis payments upon its launch would number in the thousands, though an exact figure was not given.

What remains to be seen is if NFC-based mobile wallets turn out the be the dominant method of m-payments. In August, Google released a cloud-based version of its wallet, something Isis has said it has no immediate plans of doing.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio